The week before the UN military action in Cite Soleil saw several huge demonstrations demanding the return of ousted president Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Residents believe that the UN justification for the attack, to arrest a base of kidnappers, was really a cover for collective punishment against the community for continuing demonstrations like these.

Samuel Leconte was arrested and questioned by UN authorities and then turned over to the Haitian police. He is currently being held without charges in the Delmas 33 police station.

A helicopter gunship flies a sortie over Cite Soleil on Dec. 22, 2006. The UN has denied firing at the population from helicopters despite eyewitness restimony from victims and survivors

An unidentified 28 year-old man is seen dying in his home. Before succumbing to his wounds, he gives testimony that directly contradicts UN denials of firing from helicopter gunships on the population below. "I was shot by the helicopter" were his last words.

Jonel Bonhomme, 16 years-old, lies in a pool of his own blood just after being shot by UN forces on December 22, 2006. Before dying, Bonhomme described in detail how the UN opened fire on unarmed civilians in his neighborhood.

An unidentified man in Cite Soleil crosses himself in a religious gesture before attempting to walk across the street as UN forces open fire in his community on Dec. 22, 2006.

An unidentified Haitian man holds a towel to his face to stop the bleeding from a headshot he claims came from UN forces on Dec. 22, 2006 in Cite Soleil.

HIP - Port au Prince, Haiti  A Cite Soleil community activist, Samuel Leconte, was arrested at gunpoint by Brazilian soldiers on Jan. 18th and was turned over to the Haitian police. The first questions posed to Mr. Leconte by the UN were whether he has information connecting former political prisoner Annette Auguste, aka So An, and exiled president Aristide to large demonstrations in the seaside shanty town of Cite Soleil. While Mr. Leconte has responded that he has no such information and that the demonstrations are taken at the initiative of the community, the information Mr. Leconte does possess is eyewitness testimony of the killings executed by UN forces in his community on December 22. 2006.

Weeks before his arrest, Mr. Leconte spoke at a funeral for the victims of what residents
of Cite Soleil are calling a second massacre by UN military forces in their community. Mr.
Leconte condemned the killings while sitting in front of a large banner
that read "Thank you President Preval for this Christmas gift," an
obvious reference to Preval's having reportedly approved the deadly raid. "They
killed women, children and old people. They shot them like animals"
states Mr. Leconte as he begins to weep into the microphone. He
concluded, "They will never stop our demands for the return of
President Aristide. We will keep demonstrating and will never stop
until the land of Dessalines is truly free and independent!!" As of this writing, Mr. Leconte is being held without charges by the Haitian police in the notorious Delmas 33 prison which is called Fort Dimanche, alluding to a former prison run by the Duvalier dictatorship.

According to residents of Cite Soleil, UN forces attacked their
neighborhood in the early morning hours of Dec. 22, 2006 and killed more than
30 people including women and children. For many this was a repeat of UN
military operations on July 6, 2005 when more than 26 people were killed
in a successful assassination attempt on Emmanuel "Dred" Wilmer and four
of his closest followers. Wilmer was openly hostile to the UN military
occupation of his country and opposed the ouster of the constitutional
president Jean-Bertrand Aristide. He led armed resistance and inspired
others to do the same against the brutal Haitian police and the
irreparably corrupt legal system.

This time the target was a purported kidnapping gang led by a young man
named Belony. The military operation was said to have been personally
sanctioned by President Rene Preval, who was elected last year with
support from Aristide's Lavalas movement. Tens of thousands of Lavalas
supporters paralyzed the capital for more than a week to challenge the
76 million dollar UN-sponsored elections fiasco. The UN-backed Provisional Election Council(CEP) attempted a ballot counting fraud meant to keep Preval from assuming office.

The irony is that the attack on Dec. 22 seems to have been triggered, not by a surge in
kidnappings as claimed by the UN, but by another massive demonstration of Lavalas supporters
that began in Cite Soleil. About ten thousand people demonstrated a few
days before for the return of president Aristide in a clear
condemnation of what they called the foreign military occupation of their
country. These huge demonstrations are not to be confused with smaller
protests of the so-called "student demonstrations" of the "testicles up
your derriere" movement or GNB that helped to oust Aristide on Feb. 29,
2004. The protesters in Cite Soleil were offered a far different
treatment by the UN than the so-called "students."

Footage taken by HIP videographers shows unarmed civilians dying as a result of indiscriminate gunfire from UN forces on December 22, 2006. Although the UN denied firing from helicopter gunships, an unidentified 28 year-old man dies on camera stating that he was shot in the abdomen from a circling UN helicopter raining death upon those below. This is not the first time the UN has denied murdering unarmed civilians in Cite Soleil. The occupation force also denied killing unarmed civilians on July 6, 2005. Eloufi Boulbars, a UN spokesperson stated on July 8, 2005, "We saw five people killed, that's what we could count. Armed bandits who had tried to resist were either killed or wounded." Documentary evidence finally forced the UN to admit that unarmed civilians had been killed by UN forces despite their attempts to cover it up.

The scene December 22, 2006 was not all that different with the UN
feeding the corporate media a story of military intervention against
kidnappers and denying once again the disproportionate use of force
resulting in the heavy loss of life among unarmed civilians. Another
similarity was the UN's utter disregard in planning for civilian
causualties. As in July 2005, not a single medical unit accompanied the
UN forces as residents hit by indiscriminate and sustained gunfire bled
to death in the middle of the street or managed to crawl back to their
homes to die in the arms of their families.

"I couldn't count all the victims," states one survivor who asked to
remain anonymous due to fears for her safety. "They came in shooting.
Look at that pregnant woman they just shot. Look at that young man.
Are we all bandits? Are we all kidnappers?" Annette Auguste, who was a
political prisoner in Haiti for more than two years added, "We saw
young men and women gunned down by UN forces in Cite Soleil. Young
people shot dead . Were they all kidnappers too?"

More than three hours of video footage and a large selection of digital
photos, illustrate more than words ever could what the UN is doing in
Haiti. The wounded and dying on the video tape all express horror and
confusion at the reasons UN forces shot at them. A 16 year-old young
man asks why UN forces shot him as he clearly realizes he is going to
die. Less than an hour later we see his lifeless corpse replace what
once was an animated and articulate young man. HIP Founding Editor
Kevin Pina commented, "It is clear that this represents an act of
terror against the community. This video evidence shows clearly that
the UN stands accused, once again, of targeting unarmed civilians in
Cite Soleil. There can be no justification for using this level of
force in the close quarters of those neighborhoods. It is clear that
the UN views the killing of these innocents as somehow acceptable to
their goal of pacifying this community. Every demonstration, no matter
how peaceful, is seen as a threat to their control if it includes
demands for the return of Aristide to Haiti. In that context it is
difficult to continue to view the UN mission as an independent and
neutral force in Haiti. They apparently decided sometime ago it was
acceptable to use military force to alter Haiti's political landscape
to match their strategic goals for the Haitian people."

The people of Cite Soleil now view president Preval as having the blood
of innocent victims on his hands along with UN Special Envoy to Haiti
Edmond Mulet and the recently replaced Brazilian General Jose Elito
Carvalho de Siqueira. In the minds of the survivors they now join the
ranks of General Heleno Ribera, former UN Envoy Juan Gabriel Valdes and
the former US-installed prime minister Gerard Latortue all of who are
implicated in ordering and covering up the first massacre of July 6,
2005.